1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for selling, buying, lending, and renting a virtual region in a virtual world structured in the Internet or the like and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hereinafter, a two-dimensional spread is referred to as plane, whereas a three-dimensional spread is referred to as space. A part of a plane or a space is referred to as region. A plane, a space, and various existences are together referred to as world. In this case, existences are for example mountains, rivers, buildings, and so forth.
As shown in FIG. 1A, on the web of the Internet, virtual two-dimensional planes referred to as pages are accomplished by correlating them using a technology referred to as link. In FIG. 1A, on a page 11 displayed on the screen, links 12 and 13 are designated. When the user selects the link 12 with a mouse, a detail information page 14 is displayed. When the user selects the link 13, the next page 15 is displayed.
FIG. 1B shows a method for displaying these pages. In FIG. 1B, a server 21 is for example a personal computer (PC) that provides page information. A client 22 is a PC of a user 23 who receives page information. The server 21 comprises a processing portion 31 and a communicating portion 32. The client 22 comprises a communicating portion 33, a processing portion 34, an inputting portion 35, and an outputting portion 36.
When the user 23 inputs an address (unique identifier) “http://xxx/file-01.html” of a desired web page stored in the server 21 to the inputting portion 35 of the client 22, the input request is sent to the processing portion 31 of the server 21 through a network. As a result, the server 21 sends a file of the web page to the client 22. The outputting portion 36 displays/outputs the page 11. When the user selects the links 12 and 13, the pages 14 and 15 are output, respectively.
However, the above-described conventional system has the following problem.
In future, the web will be extended to a virtual three-dimensional space. A particular region of a particular virtual space is correlated with a particular region of another virtual space. As a result, the user can jump from one virtual region to another virtual region. In addition, the user may see a particular virtual region from another virtual region.
In such a situation, like the real world in which real estates and buildings are lent, rented, sold, and bought, in a virtual world, virtual regions of three-dimensional spaces and two-dimensional planes will be sold, bought, lent, and rented. Although methods and apparatuses that accomplish virtual three-dimensional spaces have been used, it seems that methods and apparatuses that allow virtual spaces to be sold, bought, lent, and rented and correlatively used have not been proposed.